Led Zeppelin lll

Led Zeppelin III es el tercer álbum de estudio de Led Zeppelin, lanzado el 5 de octubre de 1970 por Atlantic Records. El álbum representó una maduración de la música de la banda, hacia un mayor énfasis en los sonidos folk y acústicos. Esto sorprendió a muchos fans y críticos, y tras su lanzamiento el disco recibió críticas bastante indiferentes. A pesar de esto, Led Zeppelin III es actualmente elogiado y reconocido por mostrar que Led Zeppelin eran más que una banda de rock convencional, y que podría ramificarse en un territorio musical más amplio. Este álbum añadía acústica y elementos de funk rock al repertorio de la banda, lo cual cautivó a los seguidores del rock progresivo. Los detractores embistieron contra la música heavy calificándola de ruido acrítico, mientras que el material acústico fue tachado de pálida imitación de la música de Crosby, Stills and Nash (and Young). En ese año la revista Rolling Stone había dado duras críticas al álbum; estas no se pueden encontrar en los archivos porque fueron eliminadas, dado que éste LP representa, en la actualidad, uno de los mejores trabajos de la banda. «Debe darse crédito a Bron-Yr-Aur, una casita de campo en South Snowdonia, por pintar una imagen un tanto olvidada de auténtica plenitud que sirvió de incentivo a algunos de estos planteamientos musicales», agosto de 1970. Esta cita, incluida en la cubierta de Led Zeppelin III sirve para explicar el carácter sorprendentemente tranquilo de las canciones. Page y Plant se retiraron a esta granja para descansar de las giras y de todo el éxito que había alcanzado el segundo disco, y trabajaron en algunas canciones, muy influidas por la atmósfera del campo. Posteriormente grabaron el material a medias entre Headley Grange, una mansión en Hampshire (con el estudio ambulante de The Rolling Stones) y los estudios Island en Londres. El disco quedó así dividido en dos caras completamente distintas: en la primera, los clásicos temas de rock y blues totalmente eléctricos, mientras que en la segunda aparecían exclusivamente temas funk o predominantemente acústicos. La crítica, tras la tremenda sacudida de Led Zeppelin II, esperaba algo más contundente, y no acogió muy bien al tercer álbum. Sin embargo, a muchos les parece uno de los mejores discos de la banda. En cuanto al aspecto externo del disco, la portada es mucho más atrevida que las dos anteriores y está plagada de imaginería hippie. En la edición en vinilo, la carpeta está cubierta de agujeros, con lo que se puede ver la funda del disco, con un diseño completamente psicodélico. Detrás de la portada había un disco laminado giratorio cubierto con más imágenes, incluyendo fotos de los miembros de la banda, que al girarse se mostraban a través de agujeros en la cubierta. Esto no podría ser replicado en una portada de cassette o CD convencional, aunque existieron CDs japoneses y británicos envasados en versiones en miniatura de la portada original. El conjunto total, ideado por un tal Zacron, no pareció ser del agrado de Page:
                                    

Led Zeppelin III is the eponymous third studio album by the English rock band Led Zeppelin, released on 5 October 1970 by Atlantic Records in the United States and on 23 October 1970 in the United Kingdom. The songs were recorded using The Rolling Stones Mobile Studio, Headley Grange, and Hampshire Island Studios Olympic Studios, London. The album represented a maturing of the band's music towards a greater emphasis on folk and acoustic sounds. This surprised many fans and critics, and upon its release the album received rather indifferent reviews. Led Zeppelin III is generally praised and acknowledged as representing an important milestone in the band's history, and a turning point in their music. Although acoustic songs had been featured on its predecessors, this album showed that Led Zeppelin were more than just a conventional rock band, and that they could branch out into wider musical territory, like folk. Many of the songs featured on the album were conceived in mid-1970 at Bron-Yr-Aur, an 18th-century cottage in Gwynedd, Wales, on a hilltop overlooking the Dyfi Valley, three miles north of the market town Machynlleth. There, Jimmy Page and Robert Plant spent some time after an exhausting concert tour of North America to play and compose new music. This remote setting had no running water or electric power, which encouraged a slight change of musical direction for the band towards an emphasis on acoustic arrangements. As Page later explained: After the intense touring that had been taking place through the first two albums, working almost 24 hours a day, basically, we managed to stop and have a proper break, a couple of months as opposed to a couple of weeks. We decided to go off and rent a cottage to provide a contrast to motel rooms. Obviously, it had quite an effect on the material that was written... It was the tranquility of the place that set the tone of the album. Obviously, we weren't crashing away at 100 watt Marshall stacks. Having played acoustic and being interested in classical guitar, anyway, being in a cottage without electricity, it was acoustic guitar time... After all the heavy, intense vibe of touring which is reflected in the raw energy of the second album, it was just a totally different feeling. Plant has expressed similar recollections: [Bron-Yr-Aur] was a fantastic place in the middle of nowhere with no facilities at all--and it was a fantastic test of what we could do in that environment. Because by that time we'd become obsessed with change, and the great thing was that we were also able to create a pastoral side of Led Zep. Jimmy was listening to Davey Graham and Bert Jansch and was experimenting with different tunings, and I loved John Fahey. So it was a very natural place for us to go to. After preparing the material that would emerge on the album, Page and Plant were joined by John Bonham and John Paul Jones at Headley Grange, a run-down mansion in East Hampshire, to rehearse the songs. With its relaxed atmosphere and rural surroundings, Headley Grange appealed to the band as the favoured alternative to the discipline of a conventional studio. The album was then recorded in a series of sessions in May and June 1970 at both Headley Grange and at Olympic Studios, London. Some additional work was put in at Island Records' new Basing Street Studios in Notting Hill, London, in July, then mixed at Ardent Studios, Memphis in August 1970 during Led Zeppelin's sixth American concert tour. The album was produced by Page and engineered by Andy Johns and Terry Manning. Six other songs that were recorded during these sessions were released at a later date. "Poor Tom" was released on the 1982 Coda album, "Bron-Yr-Aur" was included on the 1975 double album Physical Graffiti, "Hey, Hey, What Can I Do" was released as the b-side to the 1970 "Immigrant Song" single, later appearing on the first box set in 1990 and then Coda (Deluxe Edition) in 2015 with "St. Tristan's Sword", and "Jennings Farm Blues" and "Key to the Highway/Trouble in Mind" later appeared on the 2014 deluxe edition of the album.